HORT 120 Soils & Plant Nutrition
(Contact Hours: 5) Students will learn about the physical, chemical, and organic properties of soil and a variety of commercial growing medias. Students will learn how soils are formed, eroded, and stabilized. They will also explore how soils/growing media affect plant biology and how plants respond to soil nutrients and physical (e.g., compaction) and chemical (e.g., nutrient availability) properties. Students will practice diagnosing common plant nutrition deficiencies/toxicities and will gain hands-on experience prescribing and applying fertilizer and cultural amendments (e.g., plant growth regulators) that mitigate plant nutrition issues. Students will also gain experience obtaining soil/growing media/plant nutrient concentration samples and interpreting processed sample reports. Minimum benchmarks will be enforced.